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When a company is sued by a current or former employee, the primary focus usually becomes winning the case and not getting to the bottom of what caused it. It’s about circling the wagons, not pursuing the truth.
The Jon Gruden lawsuit against the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell has sparked an extended effort by the league to force the case into its preferred forum: The secret, rigged, kangaroo court of arbitration ultimately controlled by Goodell. There has been, by all appearances, little or no effort to figure out who decided to spark Gruden’s ouster.
Last week, the league won the arbitration issue before the Nevada Supreme Court. Gruden still has more moves to make in the court system, in Nevada and beyond. He could still force the case into open court, where it would all play out in public view — and where (absent a settlement) we’d all know who targeted Gruden.
Gruden clearly was targeted, by someone. Setting aside the question of whether he should have remained in the job given the emails he sent, someone weaponized a handful of message from some 650,000 confidential documents collected in the Washington investigation and leaked them first to the Wall Street Journal and then to the New York Times before Gruden resigned under pressure.
A very small universe of people had access to the Gruden emails. It wouldn’t be difficult for the league to figure out who leaked them. But the league’s primary concern for now is to beat back the Gruden lawsuit, not to figure out who used the emails to take down Gruden.
The NFL constantly harps on the integrity of the game. Once a given season begins, the NFL is hesitant about changing the rules, in order to protect the integrity of the entire season.
In Gruden’s case, the league (as we reported at the time) had the emails in June 2021. If someone believed Gruden should not be coaching in the NFL because of emails sent while he was working for ESPN, it could have been handled then, giving the Raiders a chance to replace him…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-owners-pose-pointed-questions-095745798.html
Author : ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports
Publish date : 2024-05-21 09:57:45
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